A new advertising campaign from international smoke control, environmental ventilation and facade engineering specialist, SE Controls, sets out to reinforce the importance of fire safety compliance whilst highlighting the fact that lives are being put at risk by non-compliant practices in the smoke control and fire safety industry.
The primary message of the campaign, which breaks in May is ‘Don’t take risks. Take responsibility’ and the design is aimed at tackling some misconceptions surrounding compliance, whilst addressing the issues of complacency and responsibility with life safety systems.
The message from SE Controls is a positive one and communicates that ‘only compliant business is SE Controls business’. Also, to reduce the risk to life safety, there is a call on the industry to uphold best practice.
Compliance means adherence to the suite of EN12101 smoke standards, BS7346-8 for design through to maintenance of products, Approved Document B for complying with building regulations, particularly relating to means of escape, travel distances and free area calculations. In addition, compliance with BS9999 and BS9991, which cover fire safety in the design, management and use of non-residential and residential buildings respectively, is also necessary.
EN 12101: Pt 2, for example dictates that unless the actuator and vent profile are tested together as a system, in a fire environment and at an accredited facility, it is not compliant; therefore its safety can’t be guaranteed and a Declaration of Performance (DoP) can’t be issued. Where there is no Declaration of Performance (DoP), there is no compliance.
Group Managing Director, Will Perkins, explains: “The regulatory environment surrounding life safety systems, such as smoke control solutions is rigorous because it needs to be. Yet some companies and individuals are still putting lives at risk because they either don’t understand the regulations or believe they can get away with cutting corners in areas such as system design, product testing and maintenance.”
He added: “SE Controls, like a number of other reputable businesses in this sector has always been diligent in every aspect of our business to ensure our systems are compliant. This is also reinforced in our advertising as we go as far to say that we are only interested in compliant business and will not compromise on standards. SE Controls believes that the industry should be working together to change attitudes. Compliance doesn’t mean having a fire safety contract for a building, compliance is about providing a regulated building safe for occupation.”